Hospital costs plague prison

Carbon County has been working to keep overtime costs down at the prison.

They have hired additional full-time staff and have kept a close eye on monthly overtime reports.

But some things are out of officials’ control, such as when an inmate needs to be hospitalized.

On Thursday, Commissioners’ Chairman Wayne Nothstein pointed out that there was a budget transfer in the amount of $25,000 to the prison hospital expenses fund. This is the third transfer so far this year, he said, noting that the previous two were $20,000 each.

“This has been an extremely bad year for us at the prison with having two to three inmates in the hospital at the same time,” he said.

Inmates who are hospitalized are required to have round-the-clock supervision by either sheriff’s deputies or corrections officers while being treated outside the prison.

This means that the staff in both the sheriff’s office and prison have to work over their allotted 40-hour weeks to cover shifts at both the hospital and at the prison.

“It puts a strain on our prison staff in overtime and then we must go to the sheriff’s staff to make up the time the prison staff cannot cover,” Nothstein said.

Carbon County budgeted $65,000 for hospitalization costs this year based on previous year totals, but sometimes, like this year, unexpected hospitalizations force bigger bills than anticipated.

“Hopefully, the rest of the year will be better,” Nothstein said.